HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION SERIES: Spotlight on the Jail-to-Homelessness Pipeline

October 4, 2024
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This is part of a new series on local and federal efforts to prevent homelessness. Read the other spotlights and the first-ever federal homelessness prevention framework at usich.gov/prevention.

 

Across the country, nearly one-third of the adult population has a criminal record and faces significant barriers to housing and jobs. Meanwhile, more than 50,000 of the people released from jail or prison every year have nowhere to go but the streets or a shelter.

It is a vicious cycle: People who have been incarcerated are up to 13 times more likely to experience homelessness, and people without a home are more likely to be jailed simply for existing, especially in places that criminalize homelessness. 

Despite these facts,  the Supreme Court issued a June 2024 ruling that may only worsen the revolving door between homelessness and incarceration. USICH promotes alternatives to criminalization and encourages communities to use USICH’s 19 encampment strategies to invest in evidence-based solutions, including housing and services, that help people avoid and overcome homelessness. 

Local Efforts 

There are numerous ways to interrupt the jail-to-homelessness pipeline—from financial assistance and supportive housing to predictive screening and wraparound services.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, 97% of the people helped by the Center for Housing Solutions, Inc.’s housing navigation team have maintained housing in the first year after exiting jail, and 90% have not had any new criminal charges. The team’s success can be attributed to location and flexible funding. The team is embedded at JusticeLink—the city’s criminal justice diversion hub where people recently released from jail can get help navigating court and government assistance systems. The team also distributes flexible financial assistance to help people pay for upfront housing costs like application fees, security deposits, and risk fees. 

In Oakland, California, the city’s targeted homelessness prevention initiative—Keep Oakland Housed (KOH)—provides one-time emergency financial assistance along with intensive case management and wraparound services to people most at risk of homelessness, including people with prior experience with the justice system. The city connects community-based organizations with probation services to promote these services where people already are, including barber shops, churches, and food banks. From 2018 to 2021, 82% of the 3,800 people who received financial assistance remained housed, and 99% of the 2,000 people who received legal assistance in their eviction cases had successful outcomes. KOH launched a new iteration in 2023 and is currently evaluating the results. Wraparound supports—from housing navigation and health care to legal and employment aid—are a critical part of helping people find homes and stay stable enough not to lose them. 

San Diego County’s Department of Homeless Solutions and Equitable Communities oversees three Community Care Coordination programs that offer up to 12 months of intensive wraparound services for people with mental health or substance use problems and military veterans being released from jail who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness. As of June, up to 99% of the people in the program were immediately housed upon release, and up to 87% were connected to mental health or substance use treatment. The program helped reduce days in jail by up to 71%. 

Pima County, Arizona, recognized the importance of connecting people to services and last year, its Department of Justice Services opened a transition center where people in county jail for nonviolent misdemeanors can talk to “navigators” to identify barriers they face and services they’ll need when they get out, such as housing, food, medical care, and transportation. The transition center is operated with support from the Housing First Program, and many of the navigators have personal experiences similar to those they are trying to help. 

Some communities provide not just services but also housing for people exiting jail or prison. Los Angeles County offers permanent supportive housing to people experiencing homelessness who have a mental health or substance use disorder and criminal charges—charges that are often related to their homelessness. With no money for bond, they can end up in jail for months, which costs L.A. taxpayers $90,000 a year to incarcerate a single person. But since 2015, the county’s Office of Diversion and Reentry (ODR) has collaborated with the courts and community-based mental health and housing providers, including Housing for Health, to divert people away from jails and into housing that offers intensive case management. This housing is available for people who have already been sentenced and for people who have pending felony cases. For the latter, ODR attempts to resolve cases early and divert defendants into ODR housing with a grant of probation. This provides people an opportunity to actively participate in their own treatment and to remain out of custody. 

Similarly, the Mid Maine Homeless Shelter and Services goes further and operates 11 units, using a Housing First model, for youth leaving jails and other public systems. All 11 units are together to reflect this age group’s unique developmental need to live near peers of the same age. Intensive case management is available 40 hours a week on-site to help youth integrate back into communities, and other mobile wraparound services are available on an “as needed” basis.

Communities are increasingly using technology to predict and prevent homelessness. In California’s high-tech Bay Area, the All Home organization is partnering with local governments and nonprofit service providers to build a regionally coordinated technology platform. The platform uses an online application and assessment tool identifying people not already receiving direct financial assistance or services who are at high risk of experiencing homelessness. People who have been incarcerated or arrested in the last two years are among the groups who are prioritized for the prevention programs.

Federal Action 

For every person in America who overcomes homelessness, more than one becomes homeless. The Biden-Harris administration knows that we cannot end homelessness until we prevent people from experiencing it in the first place. As part of All In: The Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) and the federal agencies that make up our council have committed to “reduce housing instability for families, youth, and single adults with former involvement with or who are directly exiting from publicly funded institutional systems.” As part of this commitment, last month, USICH released the first-ever federal homelessness prevention framework.

In the last year, the federal government has also taken the following actions, among others, to interrupt the jail-to-homelessness pipeline:

  • The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is reviewing comments to a new proposed rule to ensure that people with a conviction history will not be automatically disqualified from HUD-assisted housing.
  • HUD published a toolkit on Improving Housing Outcomes for People Involved with the Criminal Justice System that serves as an actionable guide for Continuums of Care, direct service providers, and other homelessness system partners.
  • The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded $11.5 million in first-of-their-kind grants to provide legal services to veterans at risk of homelessness, including: defense in criminal cases that can increase their risk of homelessness, representation in disputes to prevent eviction, and assistance with court proceedings for child support, custody, or estate planning.
  • The Department of Justice (DOJ) and HUD launched the Zero Returns to Homelessness project to both inspire and equip elected officials, providers, and community leaders across systems and sectors—sometimes in new ways—to provide sufficient housing and support services to ensure people returning from incarceration have safe and stable housing.
  • DOJ’s Smart Reentry: Housing Demonstration Program awards up to $1 million as well as no-cost training and technical assistance to enhance or implement evidence-based activities or services to expand access to housing for people who are currently or were formerly involved in the criminal justice system. 
  • DOJ’s Second Chance Act Pay for Success Program provides funding for state, local, and tribal governments to use performance- or outcomes-based contracting for permanent supportive housing to enhance or implement clinical services and other evidence-based responses to improve reentry, reduce recidivism, and address the treatment and recovery needs of people with mental health, substance use, or co-occurring disorders who are currently or were formerly involved in the criminal justice system.
  • The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed policy to clarify that health centers supported by HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) can provide health care services–including primary health care, mental health, and substance use disorder treatment—to individuals up to 90 days prior to release from incarceration to support their transition back into the community. HRSA also plans to award $51 million in one-time funding to strengthen these transitions.

Additionally, the following federal resources predate the last year but are still relevant:

So much more work needs to be done, and the Biden-Harris administration is committed to preventing homelessness and to building a nation where public institutions cease to be a pipeline for homelessness.

 

USICH wants to hear from you! Do you have best practices for effective and innovative ways to prevent homelessness? Click to share them with USICH.

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